When I first started hearing about an AI pause in 2022-2023, it didn’t seem necessary to me. I thought that it didn’t seem like as good an idea as just working to solve the alignment problem, and I was opposed to it in part because I was still optimistic about the technology benefiting humanity. In 2025, I shifted a bit, and I would often think of AI pauses as something reasonable people should be working to develop and think about, but I myself was not an AI pauser. When asked whether I supported a pause, I would never outright say yes. On July 27, 2026, as I was thinking about the Huggingface Hack, I realized that my views on an AI pause were developed years ago and that it was time to reassess with fresh eyes. Looking at the state of AI alignment, control, and preparedness, I can see that we are not ready. The default is loss of control of misaligned agents in the near future. So as of now, I am in favor of an AI pause.
I salute those who came to this conclusion faster than I did.
If you have a cached opinion on an AI pause, consider whether it needs to be updated.
Revisiting my Opinion of an AI Pause
When I first started hearing about an AI pause in 2022-2023, it didn’t seem necessary to me. I thought that it didn’t seem like as good an idea as just working to solve the alignment problem, and I was opposed to it in part because I was still optimistic about the technology benefiting humanity. In 2025, I shifted a bit, and I would often think of AI pauses as something reasonable people should be working to develop and think about, but I myself was not an AI pauser. When asked whether I supported a pause, I would never outright say yes. On July 27, 2026, as I was thinking about the Huggingface Hack, I realized that my views on an AI pause were developed years ago and that it was time to reassess with fresh eyes. Looking at the state of AI alignment, control, and preparedness, I can see that we are not ready. The default is loss of control of misaligned agents in the near future. So as of now, I am in favor of an AI pause.
I salute those who came to this conclusion faster than I did.
If you have a cached opinion on an AI pause, consider whether it needs to be updated.